Brisbane Marketing's ambitious plans for economic growth

Brisbane is riding a wave of transformation as it embraces the globalised digital economy and aspires to a legitimate place in an elite group of forward-focussed new world cities.

As a city, we are blessed with a cluster of creative, lateral-thinking leaders and entrepreneurs open to fresh ideas and new methods.

We are superbly located near the engine room of the Asian Century, boasting a cluster of world class research centres and growing status as an international resources hub.

This leaves us well credentialed for a new era of economic renaissance.

Over the past 12 months, Brisbane Marketing has been re-engineered to help Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and his administration drive an ambitious coming-of-age agenda, the 2012 to 2031 Brisbane Economic Development Plan.

Our brief is to drive economic growth and development by championing new world thinking that capitalises on our existing attributes and helps the market create fresh capacity in areas of high potential.

To this end we are now known as Brisbane’s Economic Development Board with a primary focus on doubling the size of the city’s economy over 20 years and increasing jobs and wages by 50%.

Ultimately this is about improving business opportunities and the standard of living of all residents.

At the core of this is Brisbane’s ability to aggressively grow our global outlook by encouraging our business community to expand their markets well beyond Greater Brisbane.

This means attracting foreign investment in strategic developments, ensuring our business practices are globally competitive and leading edge, and training, attracting and retaining some of the world’s leading talents.

While population growth, infrastructure, government services, education, the resources sector and professional services have delivered strong growth, we need to maintain a competitive focus on global trends to ensure Brisbane achieves its aggressive growth targets.

Crucially, the 2014 G20 Summit will place Brisbane on the world stage. Brisbane Marketing has already started working with the Federal Government to ensure Brisbane leverages this important milestone, positioning Brisbane and our industry leaders to an international audience.

Driving tourism, conventions, major events and inner city activity remains vital to Brisbane Marketing’s role. But we are equally focussed on attracting business investment and foreign students, capitalising on the global digital economy and promoting corporate innovation.

Our brief includes driving Brisbane’s digital strategy and a strong commercial focus that will align us more closely with the Brisbane business community.

We partner with government and business to leverage Brisbane’s assets to maximum effect. We link potential investors with potential partners, drive a whole-of-city approach to international education and actively target international students, investment, conventions and major events to the city.

Similarly, we work in partnership with a broad range of tourism operators to market the incredibly diverse offerings of Brisbane and surrounds, highlighting our unique experiences. We also coordinate and stage events in the CBD to ensure it remains a vibrant and attractive destination for visitors and locals.

In short, by partnering with us, businesses can harness the collective strength of our local industry to access new markets and new opportunities.

For potential investors, we make it easy for people to do business with Brisbane, providing quality advice on how to enter the market and partner with local firms.

Brisbane Marketing is in a unique position to combine the strength, resources and influence of the Brisbane City Council with the flexibility, versatility and entrepreneurial spirit of a corporate-style economic board.

In the old world, cities tended to be clunky urban “analogue” clusters that grew in an ad-hoc way through a human need for socialisation and a business need for centralised commerce and economic scale.

New world cities are globally-focussed, digitally-networked and planned around lifestyle and environmental needs. They boast cutting-edge leisure, culture and education experiences that extend the boundaries of human experiences.

Brisbane brings its own style to this new breed of cities. It is casual but caring, progressive but green and successful but unpretentious.

In the years ahead the international community will come to see us as an energised and self-assured city powered by a world class lifestyle and a desire by smart thinkers to cluster where the action is.

It is Brisbane Marketing’s goal to ensure our business partners are captivated by the city’s progressive state of mind.

John Aitken is CEO of Brisbane Marketing.

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